


"Will that be all?"

by mobilicordis



Series: Fictober 2018 [4]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Deviant Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Gen, Hank Anderson & Connor Friendship, Hank Anderson Swears, Protective Hank Anderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 15:26:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16200338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mobilicordis/pseuds/mobilicordis
Summary: Fictober Day 4: "Will that be all?"The phrase has been built into his programs. A polite way to dismiss himself at the end of a mission. Connor must always be polite, as part of his role as a negotiator.Hank knows (or thinks he knows) that androids are just pieces of plastic and computer chips. The more time he spends with one, however, he begins to see other things below the surface.This is Connor's journey to deviancy through Hank's eyes.





	"Will that be all?"

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is brought to you (a day late) by having to adult real hard and me slowly losing any comprehension of what the phrase 'will that be all' actually means.
> 
> I'm just gonna say it now, but this isn't my best work. I struggled with this prompt, and somehow came up with the idea of it being an indicator of Connor's instability. Idek. Enjoy anyway :)

I

Of all the bullshit ideas the DPD could come up with to combat the red ice epidemic, they had to choose to put him with a fucking android. He would have taken extra classes, taken a human partner, even trained Sumo as a drug dog, but no. He had to have a fucking  _ android  _ for a partner.

It wasn’t even a normal android, either. He’d seen the other androids the DPD used, and at least they all looked like police officers. This thing looked like a kid. Acted like one, too.

“Shall we go over the facts of the case, Lieutenant?” the android said from the passenger’s seat of the car. Hank rolled his eyes, but recited the case anyway. Anything to get this night over with faster. As the android studied the house, Hank studied it. The thing… it looked human, it sounded human, but it lacked any sort of personality. It’s work was efficient, it’s deductions concise and logical. In other words, it creeped Hank the fuck out. Advanced artificial intelligence was near the top of the list of things Hank wished he had died before seeing. He was fine with Siri, used it a lot when it was popular, but he was just too old for this new-age shit.

When the thing had seen enough, it returned to following him like a puppy, reciting all the facts it had learned from the scene. When it had finished, it turned to him with its wide, empty eyes and said, “Will that be all, Lieutenant?”

Hank had never left a crime scene so fast.

 

II

Hank had to admit, the android was pretty good at interrogation. It was sympathetic when the suspect was talking, but as soon as it went silent, the bad cop came out. “Twenty-eight stab wounds!” it yelled at Oritz’s android, handcuffed to the table. “You didn’t want to leave him a chance.” As Hank watched, the suspect got more and more distressed, it’s answers desperate and pleading. The android took what it needed from the suspect’s memory.

Finally it broke and went bat shit, bashing its head in against the table and leaking blue blood everywhere. They rushed in and attempted to stop it, but it self destructed.

Hank looked to his partner. For a moment, there was somet hing in its eyes. Something like fear. The next moment it was gone. Either that was one of it’s programs to appear more human, or the android in front of him had just felt something.

They locked eyes. “Will that be all, Lieutenant?” it asked, voice flat.

“Yeah, you don’t need to be here for this. Let’s get out of here.”

 

III

The android was determined to catch up to the deviant and the child, and it outran Hank easily. It stopped once they reached the fence, but the set of its jaw didn’t loosen. Hank looked out onto the freeway in horror at the sight of the two androids making their way across the high-speed street.

The android’s eyes were quick and calculating, its body tensed with anticipation. There was something there, something that looked like determination, like a will to succeed. They didn’t need to arrest these deviants. There was no reason to be tracking them, but the android was determined to do it.

The android jumped up onto the fence, pulling itself up. Hank imagined it running out into the road, its body flying when it was inevitably hit by one of the cars. “Connor, no! You will get yourself killed!” He pulled on its jacket, bringing it back down to the ground. Immediately, the feeling in his chest was off. Why should he be concerned for the safety of this hunk of plastic?

He hated androids. Didn’t he?

 

IV

Hank tried his best. He really did. But as he lunged to grab the deviant as it went past, it shoved him and he fell hard over the edge of the roof. Flailing, he barely grasped the ledge with one hand and held on tight. A second later, his partner showed up, looking between him and the deviant. Then its strong hand reached out to him, pulling him back up and over the ledge.

If they had gotten the deviant, Hank wouldn’t have thought twice about Connor’s choice to save him. But since the action cost Connor his mission, it made him pause. He’d been told by the android from the beginning that number one objective at all times was to complete the mission. He never failed his mission. So why would he give it up to save Hank?

“You’d have caught it if it weren’t for me,” he said.

When Connor turned to look at him, there were mixed messages. He seemed disappointed in his failure, but also questioning of Hank’s reaction to the outcome.

“That’s alright.” He turned to leave the roof, but suddenly had to know why Connor had done it. “Hey, Connor,” he begins, turning back to the android. The moment was gone, however, and the dead eyed look had returned. “Nothing.”

“Will that be all, Lieutenant?”

“Yeah, you did your part. We’re done for today.” Hank left, a tangle of feelings clouding his mind.

 

V

This time, there was no mistaking the feelings that drove Connor’s actions. They’d witnessed the two androids from the Eden Club fight for one another. Connor had the upper hand, the perfect chance to take them both out and succeed in his mission, but he spared them. The two androids stood before them and declared their love for one another, and for the first time Hank witnessed an android cry. He knew the deviant situation was much more complex than he’d originally thought, but to see a feeling as complex as love from an android made Hank begin to rethink everything he knew about them.

The Tracis made their escape over the fence and out into the night. Hank stepped up beside Connor, taking in the yellow of his LED and the confusion on his face.

“It’s probably better this way,” he said, hoping to make Connor feel better about his failure. The young android’s eyes snapped to his, and he looked pleased. He looked like he knew he did the right thing.

There was no mistaking that this android, too, felt emotions.

 

VI

When Connor leapt from behind the vent they were hiding behind, Hank’s heart jumped into his throat. He shot out his arm towards the android, but he slipped from his grasp. There were shots fired and Hank could only hope none of them hit Connor. He’d already been hit once, for fuck’s sake. He was just thankful that androids couldn’t feel pain.

Then everything went silent. Hank held his breath, and a single gunshot rang through the air. He jumped up from where he sat, taking in the situation. Connor stood tensely in front of where the android had hid. He was by his side in a second.

“Connor? Connor, you alright? Connor!” Then he saw the look on the android’s face. Eyes wide, artificial breathing quick, and Hank recognized fear in an instant. 

“O-okay,” Connor said, voice trembling.

“Are you hurt?”

“I’m okay.”

He turned away, his worry changing quickly into anger. Every time they were on a case together, Connor had to risk himself for his mission. It was awful for Hank’s blood pressure.

“When it fired, I felt it die.” Connor looked up at him, still terrified of what had just happened. “Like I was dying.” His eyes widened even further when he admitted, “I was scared.”

And there, right before him, Hank had witnessed an android— the perfect android, by CyberLife standards— admit to feeling death anxiety, an incredibly human emotion. He knew at that moment that androids were truly becoming people. And the kid before him, Jesus Christ he was just a kid, was one of them.

 

VII

Only minutes before, Hank had teased Connor about the way his eyes were locked on Kamski’s android, and now the fucker had directed Connor’s arm to aim a gun straight at her head and asked him to shoot.

“Okay, I think we’re done here,” Hank said, dismissing Kamski as an insane billionaire. When Connor’s footsteps didn’t follow, he turned back. The kid’s LED was going haywire, flickering in and out as he tried to process the gravity of the situation. His eyebrows twitched together, mouth pulled into a frown. He was actually considering it. “Connor, this is insane. Let’s go.”

As the moments stretched on, Hank thought he was actually going to do it. He was about to step forward between Connor and Chloe, but the kid finally lowered the gun with a huff, handing it back to Kamski.

Connor tried defensively to convince Kamski he wasn’t deviant, but it was clear that even he was beginning to question it. Finally, Hank had enough and ushered Connor outside.

“Why didn’t you shoot?” he asked genuinely.

“I just saw that girl’s eyes, and I couldn’t. That’s all…” He was still defensive, still trying to convince himself that he was just a machine.

It made Hank’s heart ache to know the kid thought it was wrong to feel empathy.

“Will that be all, Lieutenant?” Connor snapped, eyes already on the car.

Hank vowed in that moment to make Connor see his side.

 

VIII

Connor came to him, pleading with him to go to CyberLife, saying that he knew there was something there, but that they wouldn’t let him in unless Hank went with him. Of course he went along with it.

Down in the storage room, amongst the hundreds of AP700 models, Hank knew he’d been had. He and Connor ran in together, and the sound of a gun being drawn froze him in his path. He turned to see Connor, face flat and mechanical, aiming straight for his head.

“That was far too easy, Lieutenant Anderson.” Connor never called him anything but Hank anymore. “You above all should know how dangerous it is to trust an android.” 

From the other side of the room, Hank could see the elevator come down to their level. In between the androids’ heads, he could see Connor leave the elevator. The doppelganger pushed him forward, toward Connor, with the gun pressed against his skull.

Connor, in the midst of saving his own people, jeopardized everything to save him. He set aside his mission, everything he was working for, to make sure that Hank came out of this alive.

And now he was staring down two clones, trying to decide which one to kill. But of course, the real Connor looked at him with such sincerity in his eyes and told him that Cole’s death wasn’t his fault. Sure, the clone would have known how Cole died, but trying to make Hank forgive himself in the process was all Connor.

There wasn’t even a decision to make after that.

 

IX

The battle was over. The revolution had ended. They had won.

Hank waited a few days to let the chaos die down, knowing that many androids went into hiding to ride out the aftermath, before contacting Connor.

The kid looked happy with his new freedom. At first, there were no words. He just pulled Connor in and held him, grateful that they’d both made it out on the other side.

Then he made the mistake of asking what had happened to Connor while they were apart. That opened a whole can of worms and the kid had a seemingly endless narrative for him. He’d met Markus, Hank was told enthusiastically, and he was very kind. He made friends with the others from Jericho, and they forgave him for what happened to their friend on the roof. Connor told him about standing on the stage with Markus at the end, about fighting off his programming, about being welcomed into the deviant’s community.

When he finally shut his mouth, Hank’s nuts were about frozen. Still they stood in the middle of the parking lot. It felt like the end of a mission. It felt like they were about to part ways.

Hank almost expected Connor to say, “Will that be all, Lieutenant?” He expected him to leave.

Instead he got a shy, “Hank, do you think I could go see Sumo again?”

And he wouldn’t have his newfound son any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Follow on tumblr @brendon-mercurie or @mobilicordis (for harry potter).


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